Norway holds jurisdiction over Craig Wright’s defamation suit against Hodlonaut

The court further orders Wright to pay for costs incurred by Hodlonaut both at the District Court and the Norwegian Court of Appeals 

Craig Wright’s appeal against Norway’s jurisdiction for his case has been dismissed by the Norwegian Court of Appeals yesterday. The defamation suit against Twitter Bitcoin analyst Hodlonaut was filed by the self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto last year after the former called him a “fraud.” This is yet another setback for the Australian entrepreneur as his attempts to push the case to be tried in the United Kingdom have failed.

Wright originally sued Hodlonaut in the UK but the case was dismissed due to lack of jurisdiction in January. The UK High Court further ruled that Norway had jurisdiction because of Hodlonaut being a Norwegian citizen. The decision by the Norwegian Court of Appeals has confirmed Norway’s jurisdiction over the defamation suit and the case will now move to trial.

The Norwegian Court of Appeals also directed Wright to pay all costs incurred by Hodlonaut both at the District Court and the Norwegian Court of Appeals. However, this is only the beginning of the case and both parties have a long way to go.

Hodlonaut took to Twitter to announce the court’s decision. He stated that the “Norwegian Court of Appeals today handed down judgment on CSW’s appeal of the December jurisdiction decision. Appeal denied. Norway has jurisdiction…. Welcome to law.”

The cryptocurrency analyst further stated that this was only a small win and a long trial stood in front of him. “This stuff is only jurisdiction. Both Norway and UK courts have decided Norway has jurisdiction… Only after that the real case starts,“ he said.

Hodlonaut told his followers that he believes Wright will be willing to appeal this decision even further and might as well take it to the Supreme Court. “He will likely try to appeal this to the supreme court,” he said in reply to one of the users asking if the battle was over.

Wright is expected to continue to push for the case to be heard in the UK. Many believe that the UK’s loose laws on what constitutes defamation are the reason for Wright’s insistence.

This is one of at least dozed libel and defamation suits involving Craig Wright that has been filed in the past two years. Other than Wright’s infamous suit with his former partner’s brother, Dave Kleiman, Wright has dragged several high-profile members of the crypto community into court for publicly refuting his claims of being Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. However, despite filing multiple lawsuits, Wright is yet to register a victory on a single one of them.